Remakes. Sometimes good, and sometimes completely unnecessary, unwanted, and absolutely dreaded. Movies that stand alone as their particular works of art, which cannot plausibly be recreated to contain the same zest and epic-ness as the original. I’m talking about the upcoming American remake of Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy.
Category Archives: MOVIES
Hero Express – Ghost Rider Trailer, Amazing Spider-Man Banners, and Justice League: Doom
Welcome back to the Hero Express, your one-stop sometimes SPOILER filled shop through the news filled world of superhero’s in Film and TV.
#5, 4, 3, 2, & 1 – Countdown to Christmas: DIE HARD
Anyone who reads this site with any regularity should already know how I feel about the Die Hard franchise, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that it made the list. And truth is, I’d rather watch this 5 times in a row than watch any other movie on the list once. Hence, it’s representation of # 1-5. Yippee ki-yay.
I will assume every has already seen Die Hard, but as a refresh, here we go: John McClane is a cop from New York who goes to a Christmas party at his wife’s new office, the Nakatomi Plaza in LA. After arriving John takes off his shoes and all hell breaks loose. Hans Gruber and his group of “terrorists” brake in and take everyone hostage. Everyone that is except for barefoot John. From here McClane proceeds to sneak around the building, talking shit and killing members of Hans’ team…
As the movie progresses John kills more and more of Hans’ men, and we remain in awe at his ability to do it all without shoes. Eventually we learn that Hans is in fact not a terrorist, but instead just a very clever thief, and once it becomes apparent that Santa Claus in not gonna swoop in and save the day then it falls solely into the lap of John to save Christmas. And save Christmas he does. Barefoot.
With no available chimneys our hero is forced into the building’s venting system to deliver his presents (bullets) to Hans.
This allows him the opportunity to rescue his estranged wife Holly and her co-workers.
Well, at least most of her co-workers…
So in honor of the fallen, we give Die Hard 25/5.
#6 – Countdown to Christmas: SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT PART 2
Few, if any Christmas movies ever really exemplify the true spirit of the holiday. Too often we are inundated with commercial messages, and magical reindeer, and a complete and utter lack of brutal murders. Well, that’s not the case in Lee Harry‘s masterpiece Silent Night Deadly Night Part 2, which focused on what really matters at Christmas time – punishing the naughty.
In the first Silent Night Deadly Night, Billy grows up in an orphange and is a rather unhappy child, perhaps it’s cause Santa Claus (the real one I assume) shot his dad and raped and murdered his mom. Right in front of him. Yikes! That must make sitting on Mall Santa’s lap an even more terrifying experience than normal. Anyhow, once Billy grows up, he decides that he too will dress like Santa and murder people who he deems to be ‘naughty’. It all seems justified to me…
In Silent Night Deadly Night Part 2, Billy’s younger brother Ricky decides to take up the mantle of ‘murderous Santa’. This is particularly interesting since the murder of his parents, which is the event that inspired his brother to kill, he was far too young to remember. That means, since he credits the same event as his inspiration, the stories told to him as a kid must’ve been pretty explicit.
Now director Lee Harry made a pretty interesting choice here, he shot the 2nd movie using the mostly recycled footage from the first movie as Ricky has flashback after flashback to events he was not present for. Like Brody’s wife in the 4th Jaws movie. So after Ricky, who never says a word without furiously moving his eyebrows, tells us about all the stuff Billy did in the first movie, it’s time for him to flashback to some of his own kills. Amazingly, no matter how far back a story goes, Ricky never seems age. Anyhow, we hear about him killing a man with an umbrella and that’s where it all began.
Eventually Ricky stops with the flashbacks and starts getting in some fresh kills, and one in particular has become increasingly popular since the invent of YouTube…
So as you can see, the Internet really appreciates strong acting. The sheer power behind Ricky’s eyes on Garbage Day is unforgettable and for that reason, as well as the respect paid here to the first movie, I give SNDN2 a solid 5/5.
Pulp Fiction in Chronological Order, Does It Really Make A Difference?
In 1994, Quentin Tarantino released a low-budget action pic, entitled Pulp Fiction. His second feature after Reservoir Dogs, this was the film that solidified Tarantino as the newest face of independent cinema. The most interesting part about it though, was besides including some of the best dialogue in a movie ever, as well as John Travolta’s career revitalizing role, the story is also told out-of-order. The movie is rather a series of connected vignettes as opposed to a linear story.
Continue reading Pulp Fiction in Chronological Order, Does It Really Make A Difference?
Grizzly Bomb 